You can never have enough banjo music, so here’s Steve Martin (yes, the guy from the films The Man with Two Brains, Roxanne, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels ...) again with a banjo-medley.

Back to local news. The Ebro Defence campaign group held a meeting last week with 500 people in Tortosa’s theatre to hear about all the threats the Ebro and its surroundings face. There are many problems for the Ebro, and its delta – pollution, regression, subsidence, salt-water coming upstream, exotic species etc – but a big help would be for the government to allow scientists (and not politicians) to apply a minimum flow of water, sediments, and nutrients downstream so as to maintain the lower river, the delta, and surrounding areas. The conclusions of the meeting can be read here – only in Catalan at present.

I suppose the name Steve Martin brings to mind his stand-up act or comedy films, but it turns out that now he’s devoting his time and energy to banjo playing! And what playing!Here he is playing Foggy Mountain Breakdown with Earl Scruggs (who wrote the tune back in 1949) and other banjo-playing colleagues.

Inspired by author and fellow blogger Jesús Tibau, I’ve been listening to Rod Stewart this week. The story behind the number one hit Maggie May is interesting in that it was originally released as “merely” the B-side of the single Reason To Believe. However, DJs soon realised people wanted to hear Maggie May and the record company re-classified the single with Maggie May becoming the A-side! Both songs feature on Rod’s 1971 LP, Every Picture Tells A Story. Talking about singles, I suppose there’s a young generation of folk out there who don’t know what we’re talking about when we refer to A and B-sides, singles, or even actually buying music ....

Remembering that the Ebre Defense Campaign group has an important meeting in Tortosa tomorrow, setting out the framework for the 2010 campaign to fight for the river Ebre and its environments, let’s get back to soundtracks. A great film, with great acting and great music – Once was directed by Jim Carney back in 2007. The main song is Falling Slowly, written and sung by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who also tour and record under the name of the Swell Season.

Billy Bragg, singer and eternal activist, has set off another campaign, bewildered by the fact that bankers are still paying themselves huge bonuses after being bailed out with public money. One case in particular that amazes and offends Billy, and most of us I suppose, is how the Royal Bank of Scotland with 80% public ownership (i.e. us, the taxpayers) is carrying on as if nothing had changed over the last couple of years, helping themselves to huge handouts in the form of “bonuses” – presumably for good work!

The gist of Billy’s campaign is for the public to refuse to pay taxes until the government limits these bonuses to, say, a maximum of 25,000 pounds.

For the campaign there’s a Facebook account and webpage with blogs. Billy also recently spoke at Speakers’ Corner - see below.

Going back to his other concerns in the 1980s when he first became famous, today’s song is It Says Here, about the tabloid press, from Brewing Up With Billy Bragg back in 1984.

Today is Pancake Tuesday in England. Whether or not the plan is to follow Lent, I think most English people will be eating pancakes today! It is the equivalent celebration to the Dijous Llarder (Fat Thursday) celebrated in Catalonia on the previous Thursday. Of course, we celebrate both – the more “festes”, the better!

As far as I know celebrations take place in New Orleans today too, known as the Mardi Gras, although they’re probably a bit more exciting than downing a plateful of pancakes!

Paul Simon recorded Take Me To The Mardi Gras for his 1973 LP, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon.

Changes. Seems like no one accepts changes so easily. Two ideas the Catalan and Spanish governments have come up with are currently struggling to convince people. The first one is to finally oblige, by law, cinemas to show at least 50% of films dubbed into Catalan, rather than Spanish. At present the proportion is more like 3:97 in favour of Spanish, a weird situation given that Catalan is the official language here, spoken by most and understood by all, with Catalan press, radio, TV ... maybe there are economic or technical reasons against dubbing films into two languages, but the argument put forward that “people don’t want to see films in Catalan” does not hold water.

The other change has been proposed by the Spanish central government – to finally ban smoking in bars and cafés. The previous law allowing such places to choose if they wished to be a smoking or non-smoking area has not worked, with most choosing the status quo of continuing as they were – smoke-filled. Again, arguments that people will stop going out to bars don’t really convince me when we see the results of similar measures in other countries.

Anyway, we can but wait and see – meanwhile these matters keep us arguing and keep our minds of the economic crisis. And when the Champions’ League starts again next week, the Spanish PM will once again be able to sleep soundly as people’s woes will take a back seat to Barça’s success!

There are two bull issues in Catalonia. The (in)famous bull fights where the matador eventually kills or is killed – the former option much more frequently seen than the latter – are fortunately on their way out here, although still common in Spain. The other bull “sport” is the one carried out in the south of Catalonia, in an area around the river Ebro known as the Terres de l’Ebre. This one involves a smaller, and much less dangerous, bull, or, more often, a cow. There are various “games” to be played; chasing them up and down the street, and being chased; fastening a rope around their horns before playing tug-of-war with them; draping flaming oil-soaked cloths around their horns before setting them loose around the village at night; setting up a makeshift bullring and running around with them, jumping over them, provoking them etc.

Personally I share the view of animal-welfare groups that, even though the animal does not die, this is a cruel tradition which should be abolished. Well, surprisingly, today’s news was that nearly every major political party in Catalonia had voted to regulate and support this tradition – with only the Greens against it! Presumably this is because these “corre-bous” are very popular, and vote-winners, here in the Terres de l’Ebre. It never fails to amaze me what politicians will do for a handful of votes!

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson did not understand the world around them either, in Lost In Translation, which brings us neatly, and none too subtly, on to today’s soundtrack. Bill Murray singing the Roxy Music track, More Than This (Ferry) in a karaoke bar. Excellent film, acting, direction, photography, music, by the way!

Also including another video with clips from the film and 10,000 Maniacs' version of the same song.

On Sunday SEO/BirdLife (Spanish/Catalan sister of the UK’s RSPB) and the local environmental group the Plataforma en Defensa de l’Ebre (campaign movement in defence of the river Ebro) organised an activity in the natural area of the Ebro Delta to celebrate the International Wetlands’ Day. This consisted in marking how far the sea would come inland over the next 15, 25, and 35 years if steps aren’t taken to protect the Delta.

Apart from the probable rise in sea level, the lack of river flow in the Ebro (due to overuse and mismanagement upstream) means there is very little fresh water, and hardly any nutrients or sediments reaching the sea. This has disastrous effects on the coastline and the Delta itself, leading to erosion, subsidence, salinisation, and so on.The only problem is that we already know this, and have for some time, but when will local governments take steps to actually do something about protecting and conserving this wonderful natural area?

Speaking of Deltas brings us nicely on to today’s song, Delta Dawn! Sang by Tanya Tucker back in 1973.

Turns out that Men At Work’s hit Down Under, from their 1981 album Business as Usual, was a copy of Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree! I’ve only known the song for 30 years and had never noticed this before, but on closer listening there is a certain resemblance, especially during the flute solo.

I think Joe Satriana (If I could fly) and Cat Stevens (Foreigner Suite) should look Kookaburra’s lawyer up if they decide to take Coldplay to court!

Here’s the BBC news item, and the group’s response.Now, the video clip of Down Under, and a news item comparing the two songs, followed by the claims to be the original Viva la Vida!

Listening to the Spanish President, Mr Zapatero, insisting that all is well on the Spanish economic front – despite claims to the contrary by just about everyone else in Europe – I couldn’t hel but think of Mr Blue Sky (Lynne) by ELO, from their 1978 album Out of the Blue. His political speeches are not too different from Jeff Lynne’s immortal words: Sun is shining in the sky, there ain’t a cloud in sight, it’s stopped raining, everybody’s in a play, don’t you know? It’s a wonderful new day.

Turns out that yesterday was Groundhog Day and I missed it – unforgiveable! Anyway, twenty-four hours late, here’s I Got You Babe (Bono) by Sonny & Cher, back in 1965. Maybe you’ve heard it before, maybe you’ve heard it before, maybe ...

JD Salinger passed away last Thursday at the age of 91. His novel, Catcher in the Rye, is a modern classic and with for this major work alone, Salinger is recognised as one of the most important American authors of the 20th century. If we think of his personal life, basically living as a recluse for the last 40 years, constantly writing and re-writing new material, but never publishing, the mystery and myth becomes greater.

Much has been said about Salinger and doing a quick Google search will tell you all you need to know and more. Apparently he did have close friends, but never ventured into the public eye again refusing all contact with the media except for one interview a couple of decades ago. The book itself – a must!

The main character in the novel, Holden Caulfield, is constantly referenced in north-American culture; books, films, music. Today’s clip is Green Day singing Who wrote Holden Caulfield (Armstrong) from their LP Kerplunk!, released in 1992.